The story of Pabitra Sundari - Part 1

By NLRC Staff

Once upon a time there was a king named NLB Shah. He ruled over the Kingdom of Pabitra Sundari. The people loved him and he always listened to his people. Under King NLB's rule, the Kingdom of Pabitra Sundari was prosperous. There was peace in the kingdom and people were helpful to each other. They worked hard and were happy. The king himself was very pleased to see his people happy. He thought he had everything he wished for until one day when he set out on a tour of his kingdom.

On that day, the king wanted to go out of his castle and take a tour of Pabitra Sundari. He asked his men to get his chariot and a team of soldiers ready for the tour. In a few minutes, all the preparations were completed and the king set out on his tour of Pabitra Sundari. As soon as he left his castle and entered the countryside, people greeted him and praised him. They asked for his blessing. King NLB was very happy and felt fortunate as he experienced the love his people had for him. When he returned back to his castle after visiting all parts of the kingdom, King NLB was very tired. Exhausted from the tour, he asked his men to prepare a bath for him.

Soaked in the hot tub, he started remembering the events during the tour. Despite the many events that had happened during the day and the praises he had received from his people, something was bugging him. After the tour, he felt that there was something missing in his life.

"Wherever I went on the tour," he thought, "I noticed that the people were with their family and all of them were having fun with their family." King NLB had become a king at a young age and he had been busy thinking about and working for his own people. He had not thought about, or had not found the time, to start a family himself.

As he remembered the people with their family, he started imagining the feeling of having fun with his own family. "I don't have a family," he then wondered, "so, why don't I start a family of my own?"

The very next day he talked to his advisors about his desire to get married and start a family. They all thought that was a wonderful idea.

Soon there was a big announcement all over the kingdom. "King NLB Shah is ready to get married. He is in search of a suitable bride," the announcement said, "Those of you who are interested to get married to the king, please come to the palace."

Within a span of a few hours there were a lot of girls in the palace. They had come to the special event where the king would meet each one of them in the hope of finding a suitable bride for him. Some girls had come from far away and some from near. Some had come without knowing what was happening, some had come with riches and some with beauty. Each of them was there to ask for the king's hand in marriage. Everyone wanted to impress him and win him over.

However, despite meeting many girls, King NLB was not pleased with anyone of them. He thought that a suitable bride would be one would be able to rule besides him and help the people of his kingdom. He did not find any girl with such qualities.

The bride-choosing event went on for several days but King NLB could not find anyone suitable to be his wife. Frustrated by not being able to find anyone despite seeing many girls over several days, he disguised himself as a commoner and went to the city himself.

Roaming around the city, King NLB visited a lot of places. Everywhere he went, he could hear nothing but the story of the bride-choosing event. Everyone was talking about it all over the kingdom. The news of the event had spread like wildfire. The people were curious about who their beloved king would choose as his wife.

Wandering around different places of the city, King NLB lost his way back to the palace. He unknowingly reached a lake where there were no people around. Troubled and lost, King NLB started looking for houses nearby in the hope of finding someone who could point him to the right direction back to the palace. But alas, there were no houses there or any people nearby. He did not know what to do. He found the situation amusing and said mockingly to himself, "Oh, the great king me! Now I am lost in my own kingdom. A great king am I!"

With nowhere to go and the sun about to go behind the hills, he was just about to give up when he noticed a house at the end of the lake, and it appeared as a speck on the horizon. Overjoyed, he started running towards the house, but famished and fatigued, he had no energy left in him to take himself there. Using all the strength left in him, he managed to reach the front yard of the house, but as soon as he reached there, feeble King NLB fainted and fell right there on the front yard.

---

"Ah, this is warm and feels so nice," King NLB popped his eyes open and looked around trying to find out where he was. The last thing he remembered was when he had barely managed to make it to the front yard of a house and now he was trying to figure out how he ended up in the cozy place. He noticed that he was lying on a bed in a room unknown to him.

"Oh, you woke up?" a sound came from the other side. King NLB looked towards the side the sound was coming from and noticed that there was a girl sitting in a chair right next to him. "I found you unconscious in the front yard of my house and brought you inside," the girl said.

"Seems like you are awake now. Here, have some fruit," the girl offered him some fresh fruit. Famished King NLB was overjoyed to finally have found some food to eat.